We've had this washer for less than a year. We just noticed sudsy water on the floor in the right-back corner as you look at the front of the washer. Drain hose is dry. However, the supply hoses were wet in the middle. We dried them off and there doesn't appear to be any leaks from either end connections. But, we noticed that there is a white 2 inch diameter plastic ring (looks like it has a flange to screw it on/off, but I can't get it to budge) below the cold water connection. This ring has a couple of holes on the top half that look like they go into the washer. There was water in both of those holes.

Neither this ring, nor a vertically mounted 1-1/2 x 4 inch black rectangle mounted to the left of the white ring are pictured nor listed nor referenced in the owners manual or the setup instructions.

We're thinking that something caused water to "shoot" out of the ring (there were sudsy spots on the wall), run onto the hoses, and ultimately drop to the floor.

What is this ring? (And the black rectangle for that matter?) Does this scenario of the leak coming from the ring sound plausible? And, if so, what caused it, why did it just do it now, and what can we do to ensure it doesn't happen again?

Thank you. We have been using only HE liquid detergent and have never filled above the bottom of the white plastic tab that indicates "normal". This has never happened before. Right before we noticed the water, however, we did wash a king-sized blanket in the washer. We'd not done this before, either, with this washer. Perhaps that was too much for the washer to "handle"? Nate

Too much soap. NEVER use more than 2 Tablespoons of a name brand HE detergent such as tide. The LARGE items such as comforters usually are filled with POLY FILL, which does NOT absorb water, or soap. Use less on them. It also fills the tub up more so its easier to have extra suds that were not absorbed by the poly pushed out....